Sardinians in Ostia
Sardinia is documented in two stationes on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Statio 19, with a confusing mosaic floor, has the inscription NAVIC(ulari) TVRRITANI, perhaps followed by L(ibisones) and a depiction of a single ship. It was used by skippers from Turris Libisonis, modern Porto Torres, situated on the north-west part of Sardinia. It could be that we are looking at the ship from inside the lighthouse of Portus, and that a word game is intended: the lighthouse is referred to as turris ("tower") in ancient literature.
Statio 19 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Photo: Gerard Huissen.A bit further on, in statio 21, is the text NAVICVL(ari) ET NEGOTIANTES KARALITANI, accompanied by the depiction of a ship between two grain measures. It was used by skippers and traders from Caralis, modern Cagliari on the south coast of Sardinia.
Statio 21 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Photo: Gerard Huissen.The neighbouring statio, number 22, seems to have been connected with this one through a door. This statio has a depiction of a lighthouse and dolphins in the back part, a position that is unusual on the square. It could well be that statio 22 was in use by skippers from another port on Sardinia, such as Tharros or Olbia. Most enigmatic is an inscription found in Ostia in 1824, containing the phrase macellum et [pon]dera Tarrensibus ("market and weights for the inhabitants of Tharros"; CIL XIV, 423). Unfortunately the present whereabouts of the inscription are unknown, so that the reading cannot be checked.
From the square comes a base for a statue of Marcus Iunius Faustus, grain merchant (mercator frumentarius) and patron of the guild of the curators of the seagoing ships (patronus corporis curatorum navium marinarum). It carries an inscription mentioning the shipowners from Africa (Pronsularis; Tunisia) and Sardinia: domini navium Afrarum universarum item Sardorum (CIL XIV Suppl., 4142). Item Sardorum was added later, and Sardorum is either to be read with domini, or with navium and then intended as Sardarum. An inscription on the side of the base has the consular date 173 AD, probably 19 September, the birthday of Antoninus Pius.
Detail of the base for a statue of Marcus Iunius Faustus.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.One inscription, found in Portus, mentions other shipowners: the domini navium Carthaginensium ex Africa, ex Africa probably to distinguish Carthago in Tunisia from Carthago Nova, modern Cartagena in Spain. It was erected in 141 AD (CIL XIV, 99).
It is hardly a coincidence that Sardinia is represented in the east porticus of the square, dominated by skippers from Africa Proconsularis, and that the Sardinian shipowners had something in common with those from Carthage, the main harbour of Africa Proconsularis. Both "insertions", so to speak, testify to the importance that the Imperial government attached to grain from nearby provinces, as opposed to Egypt. At the end of his reign, Commodus set up an auxiliary African grain fleet, out of fear that problems might arise with the supply from Egypt, a province that could be cut off by usurpers and had been hit hard by the Antonine smallpox epidemic. The shipowners from Tunisia and Sardinia will have shared the same priviliges, but it is premature to think of a single fleet.
